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As the assassin team left on their next mysterious task, I settled on my cot to examine the thing Shoff had handed me. It was a thin rectangle with a 3-D projection port on the flat surface. Its gray-green case had indentations on the sides for varied finger sizes. If it worked with the tech in my head, it was my entryway into this world.
With my heart racing, I pressed a button on the side.
"Pa'tuth," I said in Tabi, commanding it to open. Using EA Standard or Basic might set off security alarms in the dark heart of an Endar facility somewhere.
A series of blue glyphs projected into the air above the device.
"Welcome! I'm your personal tour guide, Totsifee, but you can call me Totsy," a male voice announced brightly from my hand.
I almost dropped the thing.
"If you aim me at any building, image, or object I will tell you its name, specie-origin, and history, depending on how much you want to know."
Son of a bitch! It was one of those handheld data dumpers tourists carried on excursions through a museum or a city. Worse, it carried a context marker that gave it a stinking, cheery personality.
Very funny, Shoff. I'd thought I heard the rumble of her laugh as they'd gone out the door.
Still, for someone who didn't know anything about this world, the tour device was actually a decent start. It contained more information than the EA currently had on the Moneyworld—unless they had succeeded in getting someone to smuggle a 'Totsy' off for them. The image of the EA's most brilliant minds staring at this lumpy-sided, ugly handheld, their faces rapt with anticipation, drew a chuckle from me.
Totsifee had instructed me to aim at things. I didn't need information about the ceramic bars or white walls, so I switched to question and answer mode.
Luckily, my years with Saura had given me a fair vocabulary of Tabi, though I would never be able to replicate some words. "Question" happened to be within my range of vocalization.
Totsifee responded cheerfully, "Ready to begin the adventure when you are." As long as I spoke through the translator in Tabi, it would respond in the same language, and the language software in my brain would translate back to EA standard.
"Can I change your name?" I asked.
"Of course you can! I am at your service for the duration of your use. However, there are a few rules we must go over first." It proceeded to review various violations of usage, advised me it would intercede with suggested revisions if I was in danger of breaching certain ethics or courtesy protocols, would not translate swear words—the Tabi had plenty of those—and would be unable to answer questions infringing on security concerns, but would advise me when those occurred. Then it asked me if I understood and accepted the terms of usage.
"Yes. From now on, respond to the name 'Jerk'." Knowing people are just waiting for an order to kill you can put you in a malicious mood. "Understand?"
"Absolutely! Address me as Jerk any time you wish to interact with me."
First order of business: "Jerk, turn down the cheerfulness level."
"I understand. How may I address you?"
"Ka." The gender-neutral form of address was standard across the Whooex Union. I guessed nearly everyone was capable of expelling a short gust of air that passed the level required by the translators.
"I am ready to serve ka."
Time to go to work.
After the tenth polite response of "sincere apologies, ka, but that information is not available on this device," Jerk switched to a warning 'ding' for questions it considered off limits. After the second 'ding', I decided to keep my exploration within its parameters lest it shut down entirely.
The second 'ding' also stirred the first response from Saurubi I'd heard since I woke. She gave a growl of protest. I stopped, listening for more. Fifteen minutes later, after I started reading the history of Rhom—probably heavily edited by every Whooex member who had a trade embassy on the world—she rolled over and made an angry spitting sound. She would awaken soon.
While I waited I put a few questions to Jerk, located a virtual holo tour that would project into the air around me, and kicked around one of the merchant areas, staring up in awe at towering skyscrapers that housed some of the Whooex's most powerful banks and business conglomerates. It always amazed me how the planetside behemoths managed to remain upright. I was only one hundred and seventy-seven centimeters tall, and the gravity on the Moneyworld was kicking my ass.
After being sufficiently impressed by the architecture, I jumped to a new tour and idly moved up to the gates of the Trade Compound, only to discover Jerk disallowed extending the tour beyond the entrance. I could, however, see past the checkpoint.
Sure enough, no plant life grew within view, though the place had some interesting, twisty kind of mobile art structures scattered about the entry plaza.
I asked Jerk for a map of the city. It happily included the location of embassies in the Whooex Union Trade Consortium Diplomatic Zone. Jerk was full of useful information.
"Whoa," I said,
"Vivi?" Saura sat up on her cot and looked at me.
"Shut down, Jerk." I got up and carried the viewer into the biocenter, set it on the floor, and closed the privacy screen in case it had active spyware that could target on an unauthorized language or any other part of our conversation. Paranoid in the extreme? Not in the least. I knew what I would do if I was in charge of security on this world, and I wasn't anywhere near an expert.
I walked over to the bars. "How you feeling?"
"Muscles are sore."
No surprise after surviving the med-evac crash. "You'll feel better after you get some food and water in you."
She looked at the tray and curled her upper lip in distaste.
Yeah, Tabisee food.
She glanced over at her tiny bio space. "Soon. What has happened?"
"Actually, not much beyond a run through, by me mostly, of all the problems my presence on this world creates for your people." I didn't want to discuss that right now.
She made a sound of agreement. Someone had made her aware of the situation.
"Where did they take you?"
"Attended ambassador. Was not happy."
It turned out Endar security, the Sat Quar, had been trying to reach the Tabisee ambassador for details on her status since the med-evac ship crash. I winced inwardly. In my experience, people in high positions, regardless of species, didn't appreciate being placed in a situation where people in an even higher position were asking them questions they could not answer. They got angry and heads rolled.
The embassy had eventually replied that all individuals involved had been safely recovered, but they were unable to advise on their status. The Endar squad that followed Shoff and Saura, however, were harder to satisfy. Fortunately Shoff had had the foresight to put Saura in a spare suit of armor to mask her blue fur. When the Endar trailed them to the cellar where Meeroush dropped me down the drain and Saura had followed, the Tabisee team reconnected. Two Tabisee in, two Tabisee out. The discrepancy in heights had not come up.
Only then did I notice Saura was wearing her astrogator short gold vest and red shorts.
"Where are your skins?"
Her ears flicked annoyance. "Took."
Damn. The cost of getting back into space was mounting up. "Are your people able to cover for your presence here?" I asked.
"Mathet story is good. Admiral for local Tabi Space Force willing to claim responsibility."
When she got out of here she would go back into the military system for trial, reprimand, and punishment. Then reassignment.
At least they weren't planning to lock her in a stone cell beneath the Moneyworld. Or feed her to the Cheel.
A long silence drew out between us.
"Security not sure what to do with you," she said after a moment.
"Yeah."
We sat in silence again. Then I had to do it.
"Pampered space monkey?" I asked.
She made a spitting sound of disgust. "Stupid ground pounder." I had heard that expression often enough over the last eleven years. "Endured much to become astrogator."
I knew my partner's history well. Her home planet, Uchaf, was the second oldest settled world in the original Tabi star system. It was ancient and populated with old, wealthy families who had long histories and rigidly limited options for the futures of their children. Firstborn or most capable in those high families generally retained the family assets. The second went into government service. The third child pledged to Empire Space Fleet.
The Tabi Empire Space Fleet loved those third-born children from Uchaf.
For Saura, as an astrogator, that dedication meant a great deal of pain in acquiring the augmentations necessary for her job. Coppery wire patterns laced her whole body beneath the dusky blue fur. The enhancements, which directly linked a star astrogator into a ship's navigation system, made the Tabi Space Fleet the envy of all other Whooex members. It enabled Tabi ships to avoid obstacles in folded space, allowing them to explore farther and safer than any other Whooex Star Association. They didn't share the tech, and any discussion with her on the topic was always limited. I sometimes wondered how much the Tabi Empire feared someone taking apart one of those valued members of their fleet to discover their secrets.
Memory of the High Jerak's interest in her at the Ritto warehouse drove a chill through me. The Tabisee had to remove her from this world as soon as possible.
"I always thought you were some kind of space royalty to your people," I teased to distract from my concern.
"Am," she muttered, "to Space Fleet. Not to clumsy, stone-footed dirt wallowers." The irritation seemed to revive her energy. She retrieved her tray and demolished the food and water. Then she disappeared into the biocenter.
When she emerged, she gestured at the ZEE I had retrieved. "What is?"
"An obnoxious tourist device, but it's useful. I want to show you something." I gestured to the bars between us. She came over and settled to the floor with me. "Did you know this?" I tilted Jerk so she could see the display projection.
She looked at the map, perplexed. "No. What does mean?"
"Good question. I think our friends have some questions to answer when they come back."
***
SAURA AND I SAT ON our cots, watching our jailers finish their meal. We'd agreed to let them settle in and relax in the hope they'd be more amenable to questions. We had to strike up the exchange soon, however, before they darted off again assassinating, spying on warehouses, or whatever they did outside these walls.
Meeroush laid his eating utensils down and straightened his back, flexing shoulders three times the bulk of mine.
"I have some questions," I said.
Gray ears shifted to attention, and the team exchanged a sidelong look. For a moment, I thought they planned to ignore me, then Shoff looked at me. "Ask ZEE."
"It's a bit out of the ZEE's purview," I said. I had placed the thing back inside the biocenter, out of sight, in case she decided to take it back. "Besides, it might set off a security alert."
They exchanged another look, but by the tilt of Shoff's ears she was...softening is the wrong word. Maybe interested was a better description. Meeroush remained cautiously reserved.
"Hey, you're in control," I reminded them.
She glanced at Saura, then back at me. "What question?"
"Why does the Tabi embassy compound sit outside the Diplomatic Zone?"